They call it the A-Bomb for a reason

That requires effort :(

Sinfully good

Ordered some period jocks... got sent a pair with the right tag but the wrong style 😤

Guess they get donated to the food pantry (brand new and untouched) along with the nine cans of disliked cat food. There's gotta be someone out there who likes that style and some cat that eats that flavour.

That would be the sulfurous preservatives. The bowels of Hell are about to open in your bathroom

(plus the sorbitol in the apricots and pears)

It's still janky and was difficult without having a razorblade and sandpaper... but I used a hobby knife and found an emery board. The charcoal pencil now looks more like the one in the video.

Edit: Melbcat has smooched the emery board and is grumpily having her face wiped

I actually began writing something about a plague and quarantine attempts based on a dream I had a year or two before covid. I uh... think it's best I don't write anymore

Wondering if it's time to do a bit of a destash. A small bookshelf is full of tubs of knitting/crochet needles all going dusty.

I am still interested in crafting but there isn't a space set up to be sewing with the machine, I don't want to drop a pin or stray thread for kitty to eat, and I seriously burned out on knitting/crochet after the LDs. (I even have to push myself on doing art.) Might keep a spare ball or two for unfinished projects just in case but wondering if most of the the random balls of acrylic could go. Maybe even the granny squares too.

Then the needles and books could fit in a plastic tub and room could be made in the cupboard to store them away. Then the art stuff could go on the cleared bookshelves.

No idea where this energy is going to come from though. It will have to happen one task at a time as possible. I'm also having to fight the pack rat in me

Nerve pain is the worst, touch wood this helps

Fingers crossed! There was a more normal one right behind it so I'm hoping it's nothing serious or I'm just imagining issues. But better to address it

Ah :(

I just had a realisation. This easel may be intended mostly for painting, where you are holding a brush in a 'writing' position, daubing directly in small movements with your horizontal hand targeted at small areas, which wouldn't be limited by that ledge the way vertically held charcoal pencils or sweeping pencil arcs would be.

Also more than that - that ledge/rest looks designed to hold the thickness of a canvas. The edges of which would be flush with each other or less excess would be protruding, and so you would not catch your hand on it (or as much).

Boom. I knew I was missing something obvious.

Oh I'd believe it. Trying to do it myself puts the well done stuff into amazing perspective

Edit: I forgot to say thanks

I forgot to put a picture of the mug. (First ever attempt at sketching with charcoal and very quick, be kind.)

The lines are a lot heavier and more defined than they should be, it wasn’t shaded in very lightly, gradually and increasingly accurately as it should have been. (You can see I put the bottom of the rim way too low at first then couldn’t lighten it with smudging.)

This is due in part to me sharpening the nib into weird uneven craggy angles by taking too large slices/inconsistent angles during sharpening and having to kind of press down to mark. I’ll watch a sharpening tutorial and try again when I feel like it.

Constantly hitting my hand and the end of the pencil on the easel rest and having to work around it at a weird sideways angle when doing the bottom was also really awkward.

Melbcat has also decided that she doesn’t like a flavour I bought many tins of and is refusing to finish her medicated supper, even with treats or bonito flakes on top. She just picks the good stuff off and demands something nicer. 😢

And yesterday I randomly came up in a few large hives which are now swollen welts. Must be from handling laundry chemicals

I just had a weird click moment.

In the Hottest 100 discovered via Rage thread there's a singer called Maisie that I've only ever seen before on a viral tiktok that spread to youtube. The song on there is called Lost The Breakup. She sounds like Taylor Swift but there was something familiar about the voice. She's using the babyish indie girl voice. While more upbeat it reminds me of Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. Fade Into You

And apparently Nicki Minaj covered Barbie Girl?

Yep. Trends are cyclical. While Gen Z seems to be rediscovering a lot of 90's and early 2000's fashion trends the same may be happening with the music.

Ps. Was Fade Into You ever in Buffy? It sounds like it would have been played in the Bronze but don't actually remember. Edit: Unbelievably it was not.

I don't know... imagine if a cat was able to make themselves cups of coffee. Imagine the crime rate

I've realised I'm too old to really know these new artists! I'll stick my head in though

I missed seeing this earlier but sounds grouse

Yeah, maybe even tiny dots of kneadable eraser could hold a single piece up. Or a much bigger sketchbook horizontally.

Very odd problem to have though huh :/ I wonder if I put something thicker behind a whole sketchbook it would bring the surfaces flush and I would no longer catch the hand or pencil on the ledge sticking out

I fixed up the mug by shading more areas and shapes. Raising the lower rim so the curve is right and thickening the handle at the top and bottom to show the middle curve being thinner means being a lot happier with how it looks.

Using the clumsily sharpened charcoal nib has smoothed it a bit but I might need to whittle off some harsh angles still. I wonder how I'd go blocking in a face.